Auto giant Ford was forced to close down two of its factories in the US just a few days following their reopening after employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Several days after reopening its US assembly plants, Ford temporarily shut down two separate factories, one in Chicago, Illinois and another in Dearborn, Michigan, because employees tested positive for Covid-19.
The Chicago factory, which manufactures the Lincoln Aviator and the Ford Interceptor police car, halted operations on Tuesday afternoon after two employees tested positive for coronavirus.
The Dearborn plant, which makes Ford's bestselling F-150 pickup, was closed down on Wednesday.
Restarting production at US facilities
Both factories were among the Ford plants across four Midwest states that reopened on Monday after around two months of suspended production activities due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Along with General Motors and Fiat Chrysler, Ford announced that it will gradually reopen its factories in the US but will implement changes to protect their workers against the coronavirus.
The automaker said it is expecting 80% of its factory employees to show up for work, totaling around 59,000 people.
Ford chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Hackett said: "We work really hard at imagining a world with Covid-19 in an assembly plant."
"So they have lots of consideration, of course, for social distancing. We used to have two people, for example, that would be inside the vehicle as it’s going down the assembly line. We stopped that," he explained.
Ford’s factories, which previously ran on three shifts, will be working on two shifts to allow extra time to make sure facilities will be thoroughly and frequently cleaned.
Workstations will be separated by clear plastic panels while workers will be required to wear surgical-style face masks and clear plastic face shields or goggles whenever they’re required to work close to one another.
Hackett said that at Ford, they will test watches that warn wearers if they get too close to someone who is also wearing one of the devices.
Temporary shutdowns and challenges
The stoppages of production at the two facilities were expected to be brief, with the Chicago factory resuming operations the following day while the Dearborn site reopened later that night.
However, the temporary halt in operations indicated the challenges faced by Ford in operating its facilities while complying with enhanced safety measures placed to address the pandemic.
The Chicago plant actually had a second stoppage on Wednesday due to a shortage of parts from a supplier, Lear. The supplier confirmed that one of its employees at a plant in Hammond, Indiana, tested positive for Covid-19.
In a statement, Lear said: "The facility has temporarily stopped production for deep cleaning and disinfection, and we have notified our plant team members, UAW partners and our customer."
Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor & economics at the Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan think tank, pointed out that the partial shutdowns at random facilities show the difficulty automakers face in resuming operations while addressing the pandemic.
She said: "There are three things that have to all come together. You have to have a healthy work force, a healthy supply chain and healthy demand. It's not just flip a switch and everything is as it was. It's very complicated."
